


Starburst

by kqhwafellaz



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, I'm Sorry, M/M, Open Ending, Robot!Seonghwa, Starboy!Hongjoong, This feels a little plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:20:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23030836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kqhwafellaz/pseuds/kqhwafellaz
Summary: Hongjoong was unusual.
Relationships: Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 16
Kudos: 61





	Starburst

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I was just listening to Astroboy by Suggi and the desire to write about starboy Hongjoong hit me like a train, so here we have this.

Starboys were born from death.

It’s a thing that brought them prejudice ever since the very beginning of their existence, the fact that something had to die for them to be born, —which, honestly, didn’t make much sense, the entirety of humanity had been born from a big death, so why were people so judgmental over something starboys didn’t even have a word on.

Usually it went like this: A star would be very powerful, most of the time about to become a supernova, and instead of exploding, all of its power would slowly fade, sucked into the very epicenter where the starboys were formed. When the star ran out of power, it would slowly disintegrate to dust until there was nothing left but what could only be called its child.

Starboys were the sons of stars, their  _ mothers _ would give their own life to grant them theirs, and still, they were hated for that.

Stargirls were… uncommon. Almost a myth. They were said to be the most powerful individuals in the entire universe, but they were few. Far too little that generations could go by without one ever being mentioned.

Starboys were powerful too —maybe not as powerful as stargirls, but they were powerful all the same— , which was why, despite their prejudice and hatred, humans sought them out.

Seonghwa was created to capture starboys.

He was programmed to locate the intense waves of power coming off them —which was fairly easy with the young ones, that didn’t really know how to control them yet— and imprison them. 

He was not programmed to feel.

He was programmed to sense danger, programmed to be able to read body language, programmed to be able to distinguish common humans from Starpeople, but he was not programmed to feel.

So he couldn’t understand why he felt curious about that particular starboy.

He had been sent out by his owner to get him after Seonghwa had felt a wave of power so intense it could only mean the starboy was either very powerful or hiding very close —little did they know, it was both.

Seonghwa tracked him all the way to Kepler-1638b, a smart choice to hide because: a) it was far, far away from Earth, which was the main starboy trafficking point and b) if someone wanted to capture a starboy, they’d have to do themselves because starboy hunting robots, like Seonghwa, were not allowed.

They called those like Seonghwa  _ astrobots _ , because they were usually capable of flying across open space on their own, very resistant to the cold temperature of outer space and with a source of power mighty enough to carry them between planets, if they wanted to —source of power which they got after they captured their first starboy.

Seonghwa was… special. He, unlike the others of his kind, looked like a human.

That particular detail was thanks to the fact that his owner realized, many years back, that scared and unwilling starboys were never as powerful as those who were relaxed and calm, and it was hard to keep them calm with a robot made for hunting stepping on their shoes... hence why he made Seonghwa with humanoid, soft features.

Also, for cases like this one.

In Kepler-1638b, where astrobots were inherently prohibited, no one would suspect a young boy, no one would look at him twice, no one would surmise something was off, and so, Seonghwa was set free into the entrance of the city where he knew the starboy was hiding, and he tracked down the waves of power that pulsed through him.

It lead him there, to the very center of the city where a festival was taking part, standing a good few meters away from his prey and peeking under the hood of his cloak, enough to keep him at sigh and still not reveal his face.

The starboy was… he’s like nothing Seonghwa had ever seen before.

Seonghwa was created around 21 turns of the Earth around its sun ago, he had captured hundreds of starboys for his owner ever since, and still, this one managed to  _ amaze _ him.

Most starboys did what they could to protect themselves, which often meant hiding as much as they could, dyeing their hair to cover their naturally white locks, and constantly wandering around the universe to avoid astrobots from tracking them down. Those things were the only tools they had to protect themselves, to try to live for as long as they could —and oftentimes it wasn’t much, despite the fact that they could probably live thirty times more than a human, but considering an starboy left the epicenter of the mother star some twenty years after it was formed, loaded with its power, the average time he spent roaming around before being captured was some six years. If the starboy was smart enough, he could last eight years tops. 

Seonghwa could tell that starboy wasn’t too old, he must’ve been around three or four years old, because the waves of his power were so intense Seonghwa could feel them across the entire street, so he was not be very good at controlling them yet. His hair was still white, as well, and he was actually  _ glowing _ .

Seonghwa didn’t remember when was the last time he had seen a starboy glowing.

His eyes were fixed on the boy, who was laughing and playing with a few children —human and whatnot— entirely unaware of the threat that was looming over him. He let the kids play with his shiny hair, allowed them to hang from his arms, and talked to them so softly that even if Seonghwa could not hear him, he could  _ see _ it, just in the way his eyes were fixed on them.

Seonghwa was not programmed to feel, but he was so  _ curious _ .

If starboys were naturally drawn to solitude rather than to people, the  _ why _ was that one relishing in the attention he was getting from the crowd of infants surrounding him?

(Seonghwa spared a thought to the fact that all the children must have been orphans, since there were no infuriated parents around and there was  _ no _ way anyone, human or not, would let their child near a starboy. But then, orphans were a common thing in planets like Kepler-1638b, where the laws of protection were strict and parents on the run thought their kids could be safer than they’d be with mercenaries and whatnot behind them.)

It’s that same feeling of curiosity that drew him near the starboy. Seonghwa didn’t even realize he was moving right to him until his hand reached up on its own and removed his hood from over his head, revealing his face to everyone around.

There were a few lingering stares —consequential to the structure his owner had given to his features, for them to be pleasant to the eyes— that Seonghwa ignored as he stood in front of the other.

The children were not fussed by his presence, the two little green-skinned girls kept braiding the starboy’s hair, the human boy at his right kept babbling about the universe knows what, and the rest of the kids kept clinging to him. The starboy, however, looked up at Seonghwa dead in the eyes.

His eyes sparkled and shone, much like the ones of every other of his kind, but his looked different. Seonghwa supposed it was due the fact that he was actually glowing, all of him.

For some reason, Seonghwa who didn’t have feelings, found them beautiful.

“You’re a starboy?” Seonghwa meant to say, but it came out more like a question. His voice was flat though, devoid of any emotion.

“Yes,” The starboy answered, smiling up at him, though Seonghwa could see the way his smile wavered. “Can I be of any help to you?”

His voice was high-pitched and calm, but his glow was starting to dim, so Seonghwa was not fooled.

“I’m sorry, I had just never seen one,” Seonghwa told him, smiling, “It’s… amazing, the way you glow is very stunning.”

The starboy looked very taken aback by that, and he looked up at Seonghwa with wide eyes as his cheeks started to take a pink color.

Seonghwa huffed out a quiet laugh.

“I’m sorry to have disturb you,” He apologized, bowing slightly to show his respect, “It was not my intention to trouble you, I’ll get going.”

For convenience sake, Seonghwa was made self-aware, with advanced artificial intelligence so he could expand his knowledge and do what he was created to with ease, as he was capable to learn new things and come up with new strategies on his own. At that point, countless starboys since that, Seonghwa was already an expert on the routine, and was confident enough to change it when he deemed it necessary.

That time, him and his owner knew it’d take a little longer, a little more coaxing before getting the starboy to leave his safe space. Which was why Seonghwa was surprised by the small hand gripping his own.

“You’re so nice!” the human boy who had been babbling told him, his small hand only being able to grip half of Seonghwa’s palm, “stay with us!”

Seonghwa looked at him, then at the starboy, who nodded at him and gestured to his side with his head, inviting Seonghwa to take a sit.

Most starboys shied away from strangers, even when treated gently, and Seonghwa almost couldn’t believe he was being invited to be around him so quickly.

He was not like most starboys... he was unusual, he was  _ disconcerting _ .

Seonghwa… stayed with him. He stayed, and then continued to meet the starboy for the next 3 nights.

That last day, the festival had died down at some point of the early morning, the kids that usually kept them company had long since left them alone and Seonghwa found himself sitting by a fountain in an empty street with the starboy still by his side, the dimness of the city allowing them to appreciate the starlit sky, even if the starboy himself was still glowing softly.

“Sometimes I miss it,” he told Seonghwa at one point, breaking their comfortable silence. The entire street was devoid of people, so his quiet whisper was still audible despite being that, a whisper. “The space I mean, I miss floating around.”

They didn’t usually talk, in fact, they had barely shared a few words since they first met, but Seonghwa didn’t let it startle him.

“Did you float around for long?” Seonghwa asked, his voice equally quiet.

The streets were so empty he figured if he got the starboy to sleep, he could probably take him without frightening him and no one would see —it’s not like anyone would stop him, anyway.

“Just… for a while,” He said, his voice had suddenly gotten very quiet, the total opposite of the high-pitched and cheerful tone Seonghwa had gotten used to throughout those nights, “after… after my mother…”

Seonghwa had been hunting starboys for close to twenty-two turns of the Earth around its sun, but he had never seen one cry. Not even when he had failed keep them unalarmed, not even as they were rid of their power, not even when he stood next to his owner as they were being sold in the black market. 

But there he was, looking at the starboy as some luminescent drops escaped from his eyes, and thinking for the millionth time that he was so…  _ atypical _ .

Seonghwa was naturally curious, as part of his settings, but he never felt something quite as strong as he did when he looked at the boy.

“I’m so sorry,” Starboy apologized, running his palms over his face.

“Do you… remember anything about your star?” Seonghwa questioned.

Trust was, no one really bothered to  _ understand _ starboys. They were powerful, so people wanted their power… the way they thought had never been anything that mattered.

“Of course, she was my  _ mother _ ,” the starboy told him, and there was so much pain in his voice, so much guilt, “since the moment we are created, we connect with our mother stars… as I was losing her, I could feel it.”

That… didn’t sound so good. That sounded awful, honestly, and if Seonghwa could feel bad for the boy, he probably would.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Seonghwa told him, as his knowledge in etiquette told him he should.

The starboy huffed out a quiet laugh.

“Thank you, you must be the first person to not condemn me for that,” He said, “My name is Hongjoong, by the way, I just realized we’ve been spending a lot of time together, and I never even told you.”

“My name is Seonghwa,” He answered.

“To become a star… interesting name,” Hongjoong told him, smiling. He was no longer glowing, as we wasn’t that happy, but there were still some luminescent tears trapped in his eyelashes, and his eyes still shone like they held an entire galaxy within them. The sight was breathtaking.

_ An ironic name, for a star thief. _

“And yours,” He offered.

“My mother loved me a lot, she considered me the center of the whole broad world, so she named me that.” Hongjoong revealed, going back to that soft, pained tone of voice.

Seonghwa was built to capture, to fight, but in that moment, he wanted to  _ protect _ .

“Your mother gave you your name?”

“Of course,” Hongjoong laughed quietly, sadly, “we don’t just name ourselves, Seonghwa.”

Seonghwa didn’t even know starboys had names.

“I know… people think of me and the ones like me, and they think awful things about us,” Hongjoong told him, “they think we steal the life from our mothers, they think we can’t be good if we’re born from death, but I’ve never hurt anyone, and I don’t feel the urge to. My mother, like most of the others, was about to go supernova, so she decided to give me life instead.”

Hongjoong sniffed, quietly, new droplets making their way to his eyes. If his mother star was about to go supernova, that explained why his power was so strong.

“I don’t ask for anything too extraordinary either, I just want to do what my mother wanted me to do,” he whispered, the back of his left hand running over his eye in an attempt to stop the tears, but still keeping his face uncovered for Seonghwa to see, “I just want to live.”

Seonghwa didn’t know starboys had names, nor did he know they held all of those feelings.

He wanted to  _ protect _ .

“Hongjoong,” he called quietly, voice slightly shaking, “You have to run.”

Hongjoong looked at him like Seonghwa had suddenly gone mad.

“Hongjoong, I’m an astrobot, I was sent to get you, you have to run.”

Seonghwa… didn’t know what he was doing. Didn’t know  _ why _ he was doing it, but he didn’t want to get Hongjoong, he really didn’t, and maybe his owner would have to make a lot of modifications once he was back, or maybe he would end like the last hunting robot —dismantled and sold by pieces— but in that moment, he found that he didn’t care either.

Hongjoong looked at him utterly aghast, and despite the situation, Seonghwa’s understanding of human etiquette still told him he should have felt offended when Hongjoong leaned back and away from him, as if he had the right to be.

“You… came to get me?” Hongjoong asked him, almost like couldn’t believe him, “You don’t look like an astrobot, and they’re not allowed in here.”

“I’m… a different design,” Seonghwa told him, grimacing, “and you emanate so much energy, it was easy to find you, you have to leave before others come for you.”

“Why are you telling me this?” He demanded, his voice was firm and almost angry, “Is this one of your games? are you just trying to scare me to leave the planet?”

Seonghwa took a moment to look at him. Hongjoong didn’t believe him, didn’t believe Seonghwa was an astrobot, and he supposed it was pretty understandable as exemplars like him weren’t used to capture starboys.

Seonghwa stood, untying his cloak and letting it fall to floor to reveal the heavy, thick, loose neck cuff falling over his collarbones, glowing a pale blue. The white haired boy gasped.

“I’m an astrobot, Hongjoong,” he repeated, slowly so he was sure the other understood, “and I came to get you. If you want to make it out alive, you’re gonna have to run.”

“W-why are you telling me this?” Hongjoong asked, already on his feet.

“I don’t know,” Seonghwa told him honestly, “I don’t know why I’m telling you this, I just don’t want to see you hurt.”

Hongjoong looked at him for a moment, wide eyes going over and over again to the thick neck cuff.

“You’re… really an astrobot,” he said, more of a statement this time. “I’m confused.”

“So am I,” Seonghwa admitted, picking his cloak up and wrapping it around his frame once again, “but if you leave now, I promise to stay on the planet for a few days before going to my owner.”

“But  _ why _ ?” Hongjoong insisted, almost desperate. 

Seonghwa knew what he was thinking, he couldn’t trust, not very easily, and Seonghwa was asking him to leave the place he thought of as safety. 

“Because… I want to protect you,” Seonghwa confessed, “I had never had a conversation like this with any of the other starboys I had been told to catch, and I had never met one like you. You’re unusual, Hongjoong, very powerful, very  _ you, _ and I don’t want to be the one who stops that.”

Hongjoong grimaced at him, like he was looking at the most complicated labyrinth ever.

“You… feel?”

A few minutes of silence went by, none of them daring to break it.

“I don’t think I do, “ Seonghwa answered him, staring at Hongjoong dead in the eyes, “Not quite  _ feel _ , but I’ve learned to understand, and I don’t think taking you is okay.”

“You said you wanted to protect me, though,” Hongjoong countered.

“I… think it’s maybe because I understand,” Seonghwa tells him, not very convinced himself, “I had never seen a starboy as a person before.”

“Even if I run, what’s going to stop your owner from sending you to get me again?” Hongjoong questioned, “What’s going to stop others from coming to get me?”

Seonghwa didn’t know, he really didn’t, all he knew at the moment was that he needed to keep Hongjoong safe, at least for as long as he was able to.

His inner turmoil must have shown somehow, because Hongjoong sighed and gave a step closer. 

“I am safe here,” he stated.

“You are not,” Seonghwa told him, shaking his head, “I could feel your waves of power and I was planets away, you don’t know how to control it.”

Hongjoong scowled.

“I don’t even try to control it, I haven’t tried in all ten years I’ve been freed from my mother’s epicenter,” He told Seonghwa, “I am not going to hide who I am.”

Seonghwa could only gape, an starboy had never been alive for that long. This man, he was really an oddity.

“How have you lived for so long?”

“I spent most of the time just floating around space,” Hongjoong said, cheeks tinted pink, “I guess anyone could have mistaken me for a common star out there.”

“You’re really one of a kind,” Seonghwa commented, without actually intending to. “You have to leave, Hongjoong.”

“Will you keep me safe?” He asked, looking up at Seonghwa with big sparkly eyes.

“I will give you a few days,” He answered.

Hongjoong started to back off, hand on his hair as he looked to the floor. His expression was so helpless Seonghwa itched to  _ do _ something.

Hongjoong apparently thought he could.

“Protect me,” he demanded, “keep me safe.”

“I will make my owner think you’re still here then escaped, I can only promise a few days.”

“No,” Hongjoong protested, eyes locked firmly to Seonghwa’s now. “Come with me, protect me.”

Seonghwa… considered it. Which was a stupid thing to do, when he had a dog collar around his neck that’d let his owner know of his every move.

“You know I can’t do that,” he said, shaking his head, his hand gripping over his cloak, where the neck cuff was.

“You can’t take it off,” Hongjoong told him, looking determinate, “but I can.”

Seonghwa hadn’t thought of it. His master had a key for the neck cuff, that consisted in a little wand of power that, when put in the right place, freed Seonghwa from it —It had only ever been used twice, both times because Seonghwa had been severely damaged by some starboys that knew very well how to use their power to protect themselves. 

He was unable to even try to take it off himself, as it was an action that was strictly prohibited in his settings, but if Hongjoong put the correct amount of power into it, maybe he could… the neck cuff was very sensitive though, and if he put a little bit more of power, or a little bit less, then it’d send back a wave of power intense enough to make his heart stop. He didn’t seem to care, not even after the astrobot warned him. 

Seonghwa allowed the shorter to sit him down by the fountain again, and proceeded to show Hongjoong where the keyhole was, the space small enough that Hongjoong’s pointer would fit.

He didn’t expect it to work, but it did.

Hongjoong applied the right quantity of energy to open the neck cuff, quickly ripping it from around Seonghwa’s neck and closing it again before his owner would be alerted. He held it in front of Seonghwa’s face when the taller turned around, smiling at him, clearly proud of himself.

Seonghwa couldn’t believe it, because by doing that, Hongjoong had granted him freedom. He had never had freedom, he only ever had the duty to fulfill the tasks his owner set for him.

“Now,” Hongjoong told him, dropping the neck cuff by the fountain, “you can come with me.”

Seonghwa could only stare at him completely baffled. Hongjoong had done something really important, and he didn’t seem to understand it.

“You have freed me,” Seonghwa mumbled, one hand around his neck where the cuff used to be, “you just set me free.”

Hongjoong’s eyebrows furrowed, telling Seonghwa that he in fact didn’t understand what he had done.

“That makes  _ you _ my new owner,” the taller told him.

“I don’t want to own you,” Hongjoong protested, frown deepening.

“Then you have to put the neck cuff back on me,” Seonghwa explained.

“No way, I’m not gonna let you go back to someone who uses you to harm those who are like me!”

“I am an object, Hongjoong,” Seonghwa told him, face neutral, “despite how I look, I am not a person. If I don’t have an owner, then I don’t have a purpose, and I don’t know what to do.”

In that moment, Hongjoong looked at him like he finally understood.

Seonghwa felt lost on that new setting where he was not forced to hunt starboys to be useful, and he had only been free for hardly five minutes. If Hongjoong didn’t accept him, then he’d have to grab his neck cuff and go back to his past owner.

“You’re more than just a machine,” Hongjoong objected, “machines don’t try to save others when they finally perceive them as people, machines don’t worry about others’ well being. Machine do what they were told to do, but you’re trying to save me.”

“I’m still an astrobot,” Seonghwa stated, totally disagreeing.

“You’re more of an… astroboy,” Hongjoong told him, suddenly smiling, “I will not be your owner, Seonghwa, but I can be your friend.”

Friend… it was a very foreign concept. Seonghwa’s owner never had them, so he didn’t have anything in his database that would tell him how friends behaved.

“I don’t know how to be a friend,” he admitted, looking at Hongjoong curiously.

“It’s okay, I’ve never had a friend before either,” the shorter confessed, “but friends take care of each other. Will you take care of me, Seonghwa? will you protect me?”

Seonghwa looked at him, at the way his eyes sparkled like two little lanterns of the purest light, and decided he would use every drop of his energy protecting the starboy, until the day he died. 

“I swear,” he said, solemnly.

Seonghwa’s entire existence wasn’t worth much, but, he decided, as long as he was next to Hongjoong, and as long as he kept him safe, he’d hold a certain importance. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it all the way here thank you VERY much for reading!!! I really appreciate comments and kudos so if you liked it please let me know🥺
> 
> You can also yell at me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/kqhwafellaz) and [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/kqhwafellaz) !!! I swear I'm nice and love to talk about my fics!!!


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